If we want to improve the shared mental health of our profession, we must change our incentives. We must change how we practice law at law firms today.
I am tired of seeing our best and brightest suffer from the pressures we create by our own incentives. I am tired of watching friends suffer. I am tired of seeing good partners, talented associates, and top-notch staff fight each other and fight their own worst impulses—because that is, most fundamentally, what our industry is motivating them to do.
I know we can change and thrive. Let’s transform our profession into one that encourages and fosters mental and physical well-being and that views both as utterly compatible with productivity, performance, and profit.
— Jana Cohen Barbe, a senior partner at Dentons, in an open letter published by American Lawyer, where she argues that Biglaw firms must change not only the structure of the billable hour, but also the way performance metrics are evaluated, in order to make a difference in the mental health crisis that the legal profession is currently facing.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.